Machining group believes in a Haas future

Based at Flagogna, near the town of Udine, in the mountainous region of northeast Italy, HPF SpA is part of AmiL Srl, the holding company of the Lualdi family – owners of successful manufacturing businesses operating in sectors such as medical, aerospace, and automotive, since 1945.

HPF specialises in the production of hot forged, thermally treated and machined metal components. Its machine shop is being rebuilt around the latest Haas CNC machine tools.

As well as producing OEM products for markets such as medical and veterinary, HPF also machines parts on-demand for the aerospace, automotive, and power generation sectors, typically from materials such as titanium alloys, cobalt-based alloys, stainless steel, precipitation hardened steel, and aluminium alloys. The company also has a busy R&D department, where product development, evaluation, and testing take place.

HPF uses its Haas machine tools for R&D and production tasks. Among the models on site (acquired from local HFO, RF Celada Macchine Utensili SpA) are two VF-2SS Super-Speed vertical machining centres, a pair of VM-3 vertical mould-making machines, a VF-2 vertical machining centre, and four SL series lathes, including an

SL-20T model.

“We buy Haas CNC machine tools because they offer a good price-quality ratio,” states technical director, Marco Zappa. “The machines in the R&D department run for 8 hours every day; we try not to let them stop. If there is a gap in our R&D work, we load them with small-batch production to avoid idle time.”

In the production area of HPF, the Haas machines work 15 hours a day, six days a week, which will help fuel company growth of 25 to 27 percent in 2015, with a further 20 percent expected in 2016.

“We must invest wisely, and we are trying to standardise on machine tool brands, because we currently have seven or eight different ones, and that is not good,” says Mr. Zappa.

Haas machines are also in use at another AmiL group company: Lima Corporate (AmiL is Lima spelt backwards), a world-renowned specialist in reconstructive orthopaedic solutions that include large joint implants for hip and knee systems. Due to the typical complexity of such products, the Haas machines already in place at Lima include a UMC-750 five-axis universal machining centre, and an ST-20Y CNC lathe with Y-axis.

“Recently, we carried out an analysis to determine the best brand,” explains Mr. Zappa. “We discovered that Haas is the machine that gives us the best price-quality ratio, the best accuracy, and the best technical capability – plus, the support from HFO-Celada is excellent! Our intention, therefore, is to continue with Haas, and to eventually standardise our machine shop, to make things simpler and more efficient. Haas offers such a wide range of CNC machine tools, there’s a suitable machine for everything we do currently, and everything we aspire to do in the future.”

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